Saturday, December 30, 2006

Sun-Vet Mall; Holbrook (Long Island), New York

Since my [patient] brother lives on the [Long] Island south of Connecticut, or the sometimes considered orphaned annex of New York, it has for the past few years opened me to another wide land of retail excursion. A few months ago, The Caldor Rainbow visited a long ramshackled Caldor-Pergament site tipped off by our Ames Fan Club radar, amongst a few other interesting findings. In the few years of my good brother attending Stony Brook University and now living on the Island, I’ve come to terms that Long Island is quite the host for malls with lush histories not entirely decimated by the Westfield Group well known for lobotomizing many individually-flavored malls.

The Sun-Vet Mall is a surviving small one-level enclosed mall located in the suburb of Holbrook, located in Suffolk County. The namesake came through to me, but not as simply as it should’ve, after thinking a little about it: located not too far from the L.I.E./I-495 (Long Island Expressway, I-495), on the split between Veterans Memorial Highway (NY-454) and on Sunrise Highway intertwined with POW/MIA Memorial Highway (NY-27) and eureka; you’ve got Sun-Vet. Being on a high traffic split, commerce-wise Sun-Vet is by not particularly a dead mall as it capitalizes off the convenience it serves to patrons while living a dual identity like it‘s namesake suggest with a hybrid in-and-outdoor concept. In terms of décor and fashion, Sun-Vet reflects forgotten times in conjunction with a changed discount-molded market of the present ultimately saved by the high-traffic perk which neither shares notoriety nor dire fate for the mall as a whole.

Allow me to entertain my thesis for what the Sun-Vet hybrid symbolizes today. The Sun (refers to the vivacious dawn of new; the “lifestyle” or strip mall) and the Vet (or Veteran, refers to the outdated, indoor and old-style of these malls who are favoring “lifestyle” and outward-facing centers today). Sadly, the mall isn’t quite there yet, but attempts to faux a strip mall look while serving as a full-fledged indoor mall most relative to the Bristol Centre Mall in Connecticut with an alternate fate.

Being that, there is very little history regarding the mall around the net; even the basics of ownership, former anchors, and/or year of conception is but a mystery. Despite it’s odds, it seems to be doing alright with locals. The lack of prominence, without any doubt, is due to it’s eclipse by it’s own lack of evolution and and with no help by the domineering Westfield and SIMON market surrounding on all fours, the mall serves people with it’s indoor-strip style offerings with the usual shops to fill them.

The mall, inescapably a sub-mall in comparison to a few surrounding Westfield centers; Westfield Sunrise [Mall] in nearby Massapequa, which opened in 1973 and has seen it’s fair share of market changes anchored now by Wal-Mart in lieu of the departure and purge of once dominant fancy department clothiers. Westfield South Shore, a one-leveled younger brethren located in Bay Shore, a similar heir to the Sunrise, has the big guns as well which serves to the median mall market with the usual anchors JCPenney, Macy’s (an oldie with white caps!), and Sears to name a few. Along the northern parts, you’ve also got Smith Haven Mall, a veteran mall of Stony Brook (Lake Grove), which is changing it’s face to an upper-echelon market and the already upper class Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Station, both owned by SIMON and built by the same developer, David Muss.

Sun-Vet, in it’s own respective socio-economic holding, doesn’t try to compete with the modern malls but mostly caters to essential and convenient parcels (rather than boutique or specialty shops), and discounters found in most strip or dried up malls with some exceptions; Blockbuster Video, Fashion Bug, Payless Shoe Source, Radio Shack, “Dollar King” (to go along with other silly Dollar store compounds). Sun-Vet has some attractions which keep the spaces filled; Pathmark, a local grocery chain on the Island, Toys ‘R’ Us, Mandee (one of the girlfriend’s favored fashionably and resonable discount clothing stores), FYE (which was most likely rebranded) and even a surprisingly still alive withering chain of Salvation Army-meets-TJ-Maxx style post-apocalyptic dawn discount close-out junksters; Tuesday Morning (preferably “Mourning“).

Odd thing about Sun-Vet is the current layout of entry to some shops including Pathmark, which oddly cannot be accessed outside the mall even though there’s vestige of the anchor before it allowing such outside access since walled off. This more or less requires patronage to actually trail inside, typical with “celebrity-status” anchors in suffering malls, including having to cart groceries through the mall‘s nearby corridor.

While most likely a win-win for mall ownership allowing customers to see the mall and it’s tenants especially since Pathmark undeniably attracts the most traffic, but a bummer to have to associate with the mall to get there. The outermost other end cannot be accessed from the interior which includes primarily a newly faced Toys ‘R’ Us, which can only be described as smart for having little or no part in[side] Sun-Vet. Some shops can be accessed both out and indoor, which are obviously most service to customers.

Apart from the more widely-known national stores, there’s a handful of charming stores which are the make-up of more community-oriented malls they once were, and those long past. Local restaurants, comic book stores, tabacco and gift shops, cleaners, barbers and even a “Kid City”, discount store for those who might typically stray from department store or [Toys] “R” prices. There are a few shoe shops, and even a tuxedo store which used to be in a lot of now regional malls, including my own local ones. In comparison to the many other attractive malls on the Island, Sun-Vet is as forgettable to those who don’t depend on it’s local amenities as Google fails to mention it is.

This mall has it’s decorative history intact, and it shows. A basic “E“-shaped layout; basic one (wide) corridor with three mall entrances on left, middle (main), and right ends. Insipid and dated décor and other tales of void evolution on the stacked-stone walls via exterior; a staple of early 1970’s and throughout the decade. The generic speckled light brown and tan floors are certainly vestige of the earlier era, and for the rest of the interior which obviously never received any significant improvement(s) beyond some minor cosmetic changes at best halted in the early 80‘s. The original designers probably ever expected the mall to serve beyond an indoor-outdoor hybrid that it’s become and seems to have been molded by the times, originated by the 1970’s explosion of primarily one-level enclosed malls. The remaining exterior sees truer to the times, a no-frills red-striped façade, zestless, and masks mostly darker shades of brown underneath.

We ended up making it here around the Christmas season, on an late Sunday afternoon where the mall was surprisingly booming with people. Judging by the climate of these types of out-of-time malls, there would’ve been an elderly and strange vagrant population if not for the season. Of course, a lone security guard stationed in the mall’s fancied seasonal “center court” who looked trained to take down people with cameras. It seems to be a trend to have these smaller malls take a stance against shooters, luckily it didn’t happen today.

Some of the long-gone tenants were Rickels, Value House, Great Escape hobby shop, Buster Brown, Service Merchandise, and of course, Subway, the video game hangout of many a 12 year old circa 1984.......

Rickel was originally in the westernmost anchor. Most likely they occupied the entire #1, 2, and 3 spots in the directory map when the mall originally opened as Rickel had much larger stores during the 70s (they cut the prototype size down substantially by the 80s). TJ Maxx took over the spot when Rickel went under and obviously also bailed out of the mall at some point.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Toys Backward "R" Us (as Dave Barry calls it) is the former Service Merchandise. Also, judging from the aerial, it looks like the Toys Backward "R" Us and AC Moore/Tuesday Morning/ space all used to be one big store. My first guess would be Woolco, seeing as a.) it does look a bit like an ex-Woolco size-wise and architecture-wise, and b.) I know of other Woolcos that were taken over by Service Merchandise.

My family lived in Holbrook in the 80's. Sun-Vet mall was the place my brother and friends spent most of our days. With the exception of Pathmark another of the original tenants I can remember from my days there was Aegean Pizza. I'm glad to see they are still there. Thanks for posting this information. It reminds me of younger days.

I spent many a friday night there in the mid to late 70's I grew up in holbrook and we made it a practice to go for pizza at that mall when dad got home from work (now defunct Eastern airlines) After pizza my parents would go food shopping at path mark and let me and my brother rome free in that mall with our weekly allowance burning a hole in our pockets. I can remember almost all of the original stores. First off the end with the toys r us was not built until the mid 80's that was a later addition. The original stores were as follows 1.Rickels home improvement 2.consumers distributing (Not service merchandise) Consumers was a catalog store similar to svc. mrc. just alot smaller 3.The Jolly Joint (head shop) 4.Sun vet pets 5 fox's mens shop 6.the mens corner 7. great escape hobbies (My favorite for sure) 8.record world 9.mc crorys ( one of the three anchors)10 suburban sports11 subway arcade12 mht bank13 pancake cottage14 tobbaco shop15 path mark16 buster brown shoes17 frankles18 eye glasses19 agean pizza20 book store21 ice cream shop22 candy booth (in middle)23 snack booth (also in middle)24 radio shackI am drawing a blank on the rest I am sure I can think of a few more if I think about it a while. I spent most of my childhood in that mall and it is sad to see it in it's current state of empty stores

Subway was the best thing in the mall for kids. Men's Corner (where payless in now) and Fox's Men's store (where Citibank is now) were the only place to find men's clothing locally without having to go up to the Smith Haven Mall. The GAP, Mandee's and Consumers were later additions to the mall, after Rickel's scaled down they occuppied half of what used to be Rickel's.

Well, the comic place is gone after moving again, so here, from a collector/fan, is the (disjointed) history of comics in the Sun-Vet Mall:

The Hobby Shop at one time sold comics along with models. Young Tom collected very few at the time (1990) as I was ten and it was frowned upon to employ a ten-year old. One day, around the early 90's (I think maybe 93) they abruptly stopped selling comics. Meanwhile, with an increasing irregularity, the mall hosted comics and collectors shows in the Pathmark area down to about the second entranceway. The early ones were great, and I think I still hold my record for saving and then blowing a load of cash on comics (110 for 80 dollars, if I remember correctly). As time wore on, less and less sellers showed up, and sometimes there would be listings for comic shows on the announcement boards (gone now) near each entrance way that just wouldn't be there when you showed up. Monster Comics tried to revive the shows, but it just didn't work.

Now, the astute amongst you may wonder what happened to the overstock of back issues that the hobby shop had when they stopped selling comics. Well, a store area which used to be Consumers was gutted and the stone and bare walls held about (at first, and steadily decreasing) 50 boxes of comics ranging from various decades. Of course, due to the lackluster staffing, several of my friends and I would "lower" the prices ourselves by removing price stickers from comics and buying them ridiculously cheap (we were young and petty and felt betrayed by this former sponser of the comic/collectible shows who gave up on them and on pre-licensed us). That shuttered by 1996 if I remember.

As for Monster comics, they started in the back of an antiques place in the Patchogue area. After the store closed, they moved into the mall. And recently (as of last weekend) out to Blue Point.

BTW, the Flea Market across the highway is just as interesting, if not more so.

The Sun Vet Mall was once a good place to go shopping but now it a ghost town.Half the times when you go into the mall half the stores are not open for business at 10am.And a lot of stores close early around 8pm.Why waste your time going to the Sun Vet Mall when you can go to the Smithhaven Mall in Lake Grove where all the stores are open and you get better bargains.The Sun Vet Mall have poor management and could use a change.If it wasn't for stores like Pathmark,A.C.Moore and Toy R US the mall would have no customers.The mall need to get better stores and stores that will stay open for business.

Every time I go shopping in the Sun Vet Mall very rarely I see the mall manager around,does this mall manager actually exists.I wonder why the Sun Vet Mall isn't doing to well because of poor management.I sure would like to have that job as mall manager and goof off while working.I had spoken to several people about the mall manager and they said the manager is not so swift at times and have no respect for anybody.Where do they get their Santa Claus? One year their Santa Claus look like it crawled out of a dumpster and the kids didn't want to go near Santa at all.And the Easter Bunny is even worst for crying out loud.The Easter Bunny look like something you could watch on the Sci-Fi channel.The Sun Vet Mall could also use better security.Half the the times cars are getting broken into,Stores have shoplifters,kids causing problems and more.Why have security if they not gonna do anything.And maintenance is even worst the windows on the doors are dirty.There no toilet paper in the bathroom half the times,spills on the floor,trash cans full,benches are dirty and more.What with the carousel rides those rides are old and need to be cleaned,they need to bring in new rides that the kids will like.The Mall is not like it use to be and in need of new management before it too late.The stores in the mall need improvements in trying to bring customers into their stores by keeping their store cleaned as well of having sales that will attract the customers,as well of bringing new merchandise into their stores.

I agree with whoever said that half the stores never open when you go into the Sun Vet Mall at 10am in the morning or at night around 8pm.I been shopping at the mall for years and find it very disappointing now when I to the mall now.because when I have to get in the car and drive over a mile to get to the Sun Vet Mall and see the store I wanna go shopping in is closed.Or a sign on the gate saying be back in 15 minutes and have to wait and find out that the store is never gonna be open.The Sun Vet Mall is under poor management and need a change.

AEGEAN PIZZA IS THE BEST!Every time I go to the Aegean the pizza is good and so is the rest of the food.The people in that place give excellent service and are very polite.Thanks Louie,Mike and the rest of the crew at Aegean Pizza.

Whatever happen to that guy with the glasses and hair slick back? He been their so many years and now he gone.He was a nice guy and he did a wonderful job with the mall.The Mall should bring him back because the others guys in the mall don't do anything at all.Now you have 2 guys cleaning the mall when the other guy was there he clean the mall all by himself and also did security.When the other guy was there the mall was always cleaned and he was very nice to talk to.The other guys that are there now are not very pleasant at all and their job performance is poor.

Question:Is the Manager at the Sun Vet Mall a Mall Manager or Mistress?

As a employee of Pathmark for several years the Mall Manager treat the guards like if they were her personal slaves.She have her guards go to the Dutch Girl Cleaners in the mall to drop off her clothes and pick her clothes up.She have the guards go to Aegean Pizza and get her food for her and all.And she even have her guards go food shopping for her as well,she must be too lazy to walk I guess maybe that why she don't know what going on in the mall.This is totally ridiculous what she make the guards do.She treats her guards like a bunch of puppy dogs and surprising that the guards don't have dog collars on yet.She should be ashamed of herself for the things she doing to people.I wonder why nobody wants to work in the mall with her around.She is a real witch and the only person I know that wears her halloween costume for 365 days in a year.Remind me of that movie The NightMare Before Christmas where everyone celebrates halloween everyday evening on Christmas day.That reminds me of her wearing her witch costume everday evening around Christmas.

1. Poor Security2. Poor Maintenance3. Poor Management4. The stores never open on time and have to wait awhile.5. Stores closes too early.6. The stores are dirty.7. The food sucks in the mall.(except Aegean Pizza is excellent)9. Carousel rides are dirty and old.10.The benches need to be cleaned.11.Trash Cans are old and dirty.12.Poor lighting in the parking areas.13.Sun Vet Mall Sucks TOTALLY !!!

November 17,2008 The Sun Vet Mall needs improvements on a lot of things.Management is totally one of them because the mall is falling apart and whoever is the mall manager is doing a poor job.The stores never open on time and that is ridiculous.And why are the stores closing early around 8pm if the mall is open until 9pm. The flea market does better business then the mall for crying out loud.The mall is in for a rude awakening this year because rumors are a few stores are looking to closed I hear and that a pity on part of the mall manager.What stores will closed who knows but when the time comes everyone will be in for a major surprise.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the store manager Helen Johnson is one of the worst human being's I ever met. She let one of her employee's a large man that works in Legends Outlet yell, scream and put down my sister and I in front of our two small children in the middle of the mall and she did nothing about it. She is a sorry excuse as a store manager and a even worse human being. I wish that someone would notice what a bad job she does and fire her. I will never go to the sunvet mall again.

As a former tenant of the Sun Vet Mall you do a poor job as Mall Manager.You bring in shows that don't bring in any business to the stores.You let some of the stores close early and will result in having less customers coming into the mall and less business for the other tenants who want to make money.Every year you have the Santa and Easter Displays in the middle of the mall.You need to make improvements on the Santa and Easter Dislplays such as the photographer,the color women who takes the pictures.She does a poor job in taking photos and not polite at all to the people who have kids. You need to hire better people to play Santa Claus as well. When people take their kids to see Santa the parents get disappointed when they see a skinny Santa Claus.And the hair and beard on your Santa Claus is not very attractive at all. As for you Helen your mall management skills are very POOR. You never around when someone needs to talk to you. You don't communicate very well with the tenants in the mall. Maybe because maybe the tenants in the mall don't like you,but then who does like you.Your attitude with people is very poor especially when you discriminate someone. Face it Helen you can't handle the job of being mall manager of the mall because you let everybody do the work for you.

Well the tobacco store is gone now and it might have something to do with the price of cigarettes. The name of the Sun Vet Mall should be change to Ghost Town Mall. The mall have about 5 vacant stores,and now the tobacco store is gone that makes 6 vacant stores.What is wrong with that blond bimbo in that mall office is she sleeping or making out with someone somewhere.This Mall is falling apart little by little and soon the mall will be empty. Stop! Stop! with the shows and focus on improving the mall. Those shows are a waste and don't bring in any customers at all to the stores.

I recall Frankels and climbing amongst the rugs and towels. It always seemed that Chuck Mangione's "Feels so Good" was playing over the loudspeaker. This mall always felt depressing - very similar to the Penn station concourse before the floor was replaced in the early 2000's.

the name Sun Vet mall is not a metaphor, like you believe it is, but it is just the location of the mall. between sunrise highway and veterans highway. SUNrise VETerans Mall. i wish i had the time to write an essay about the sun vet mall, im jealous.

As a teenager I worked in the Sunvet Mall during the late 70's / early 80's in the pet store next to the Jolly Joint across from Rickels on the west end.

The pet shop was originally named "The Fish Nook". (The "Sun Vet Pets" name came from a new owner around 1982.)

Fish Nook was owned by a guy named Frank Margiotta. He wasn't bad to us employees, but customers HATED the guy because he would always argue with them. I can't tell you how many sales he ruined because he would piss off a customer and then the customer would leave...

Jolly Joint was run by a guy who's name was Hal Doofee (like "Doofus"). I used to hang out in there on my breaks because they had a couple of arcade games like "Donkey Kong" and "Ladybug" near the store entrance.

I went to high school with a Greek kid whose father owned Agean Pizza. Their pizza was (and still is) awesome - especially the sicilian pie!

Even back then the mall was always kind of "second class" compared to places like Smithaven or the Massapequa mall.

BTW, the Dutch Girl Cleaners is still an "original" store, as is Pathmark, Agean, and the Hallmark Card store I think. I don't think anything else in there is original anymore.

Oh,and the Service Merchandise was in the corner just past Rickels. And it was not a full-sized store; more like a mini-store.

Dollar King used to be McCrorys and the original name for the music store was Record World.

I know this mall well. My mom used to shop at Pathmark. I think there was a Montgomery Wards in there at one time. Also there always seemed to be one hobby store or another.

Rickels was where Toys R' Us is.

McCrory was there also, yep.

Aegean has been there forever. I used to spend many hours at the "subway" arcade with a roll of quarters I had saved up. Home video games killed the arcade.

I was just in this mall yesterday, still lived pretty close but rarely go. It's such a throwback to 30-40 years ago, even the decor hasn't changed much. I get a combination of depressed and delighted stepping foot back in this place. And my son likes the caousel rides..the half that aren't broken, that is. What a place. Hopefully it will still be like this when my kid is old enough to appreciate what I had to live with. :)

My father used to own SunVet Pets (he was one of the people who bought it from Frank). I loved that mall as a kid. My parents used to give me money to go get pizza and play some games. And my brother and I would always go to Consumers (the Service Merchandise kind of place) and write our wishlist every christmas. The owners of the stores were always so nice. I haven't been there in years and I now live in New Jersey, but it does bring back lots of happy memories. Thanks for writing about the mall!!!

There was a McCrory where the Dollar store is now. There was also a Suburban Sports, and an arcade in the back near the restrooms. There was a Smoke shop across from Pathmark, and a clothong store next to that.

Pancake Cottage has been there at least since the late 1970's if not an original tenant. It used to only be open for breakfast in the 90's and 2000's but is open a lot more. Ate there in Seot 2010 and it was good.

I just went here this weekend, and wow, it's even worse. The smoke shop is gone, and is a generic clothing store. The hobby shop is a small corner, soon to be shuttered, and the former location is now a Verizon store.

I'm a long time resident, and have frequented this mall since it has opened. It is a shame of what it has become. More empty stores than occupied stores. Rickles, Pathmark, and McCrory's were the orig anchors. Service Merchandise never occupied space in the mall. They were located in gateway plaza,Patchogue. There was a "Consumers" store which once occupied the former Tuesday Morning storefront. Rickles Home Store was originally a large store utilizing space # 1,2 and 3 and Toys R us space to its West. No addition was put on the building. Rickles in an effort to reduce its cost, reduced the size of their stores in the mid 80's and occupied what today is Toys R Us, and the spaces 1-3, became The Gap, Fayva Shoes, Shoe Secrets, Mandee (orig location) Consumers which later became Tuesday Morning and Green Cloud Karate. When Rickles closed, the space was first divided in 1/2 as a TJ Maxx, and a Toys R Us. TJ Maxx never lasted, and Office Depot made a short appearance in that spot before the entire space was made into Toy R Us. Original Stores from the 1970's are Pathmark, DG Cleaners, Hallmark, Aegean, Pancake Cottage, Price Cutter Liquors.Originally, #4 was Mccrory's then Dollar king #5 was Record World then The Wall,later FYE, #6 was Desi Jewelers, then Karat and Karat today Karat Store, #7 HR Block,then US Nails and today an Embroidery which once was at Attias. #8 Dentist office, #9 was Subway Arcade, then Building Starr offices, today a Photo Studio, #10 Sun Vet Optical, today is Sterling Optical, #11 is Hallmark which today is closing soon, #12/#13 was Suburban Sports then Sears portraits, #14 Was Frankles, today houses Kids City, #15 was the orig Sun Vet Coin Stamp Lotto, today a Barber, #16/17 was orig Sun Vet Hair Stylist, then Great Escapes new location, then Coin Stamp lotto Hobbies and today Verizon, #18 Dutch Girl Cleaners, #19 was a womens clothes store called Happy Look, today its a lotto and Hobby store #20 Pathmark, #21 was orig a split space with Thom mcCann in the window area, and Buster Brown, Buster brown was first to go and became Sun Vet video, the entire space then became Blockbuster Video, #22 Price Cutter Liquors, #23 aegeans is the best, #24 orig was Steffies clothing, today Clothesline #25 Cigar Store then became Variety Corner and today is Hanns Bags, #26 orig was a baby store, then Cobblers Shoe workshop split with a ladies clothing store, today is Computer Mart. #27 was a Radio Shack today is Oh Wow music #28 today houses Mandee, it was orig Rainbow Shopps and Dime Savings Bank, which later became MHT, Chemical bank then Chase Bank, #29 today is Citibank was a little smaller when the mall opened and was Foxx's mens Shop and a bank from the outside of the mall #31 pancake cottage, #32 was Great Escapes orig location then became Bundy art now Art Connection #33 was a Gourment Store with delicious Ice Creams, then became a craft store and today is a mens clothing store, #34 was a women's accessories store then Karen Richard and today is a Nail Spa, #35 once held a book store and a ladies store which then took over the entire space as 16 plus, then Avenue, #36 was Mens Corner today is Payless #37 Jolly Joint then Shoes n Things, White Tie tux today is MBS mens store, #38 was the Fish Nook then became Sun vet Pets they moved next door and G+G came in, which is today Angel Face girls clothes #39 was orig OTB before they moved to Bohemia, it then became Sun vet Pets and today is Red Wing shoes. This Place needs a good plan and I hope it survives.